Speech on Carry Law

Speech on “campus carry” law

Protecting yourself shouldn’t be illegal.  

Fellow students

The state of Texas took a huge step forward on June 1. 2015 by implementing the law that provides licence holders to carry a concealed handgun throughout university campuses all across the state. This monumental new law gives every student with the licence to carry arms, a much-needed opportunity to protect themselves.

This law should not be a surprise for anyone. For more than two decades^[1] it has been permitted for students to carry concealed handguns on campus. The only new thing about this law is that it gives the students the opportunity to take their handguns with them when they go inside the buildings. It is a logical next step and I am personally surprised that it took so long.

We live in a country where, on multiple occasions, students in colleges all around the country have suffered from meaningless school-shootings. Just think of how much death and misery could have been prevented, had the students had a chance to fight back! We live in a society where almost every person can easily get access to a firearm. I do not think that there is anything wrong with this; the right to carry is a fundamental right. But this important right does open the possibility for people with bad intention to do harm to others. It is therefore very important that we have the means to defend ourselves against that kind of people, even when we are on campus. Even if you are not comfortable carrying a handgun yourself you should still cherish this law. Because if you think about it: if you are sitting in a classroom and a school-shooter burst in, wouldn’t you prefer that your classmates have the ability to fight back with a gun of their own and possibly save your life. I know I would.

Now you could say: Wouldn’t it be preferable to have no guns on the school at all? And I would actually agree with you. But the fact of the matter is, there is never going to be a day where we can be absolutely sure that there is no sick person sitting in class with a hidden gun in his bag and bad intentions in his mind. As long as this is a possibility I cannot feel safe going to class without my gun.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this law does not automatically give every student the right to carry arms on campus. You have to have a license to carry arms before this law applies to you, and it’s less than one percent of the students on campus that has one. These students are people who, one can assume, knows a fair bit about what it means to carry a gun, and what kind of responsibility it requires. I trust these people to only use their guns if it’s absolutely necessary, and I would recommend that you do the same, since on average people with a license to carry are four times less likely to commit murder than people without.^[2] 

Therefore I hope you are all just as excited about this law as I am! I really do believe that this law has the potential to make our school, student, teachers safer. I also think that is a milestone when it comes to the fight of defending the rights that our founding fathers fought so hard for.

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun!^[3]

Written assignment due 27 January 2017 2v

Besvar opgaverne i A – D

A

Ret fejlene i følgende sætninger, og forklar på dansk dine rettelser. Brug relevant

grammatisk/faglig terminologi. Der er kun én fejl i hver sætning. Skriv den korrekte sætning på linjerne nedenunder.

1. People could spend their time much more productively than they do in front of the TV.

Ordklassefejl. Adjektivet (tillægsordet) ‘productive’ beskriver verbet (udsagnsordet) ‘spend’ og skal derfor rettes til adverbiet (biordet) ’productively’

2. Fortunately they all enjoyed watching the show.

Fejl i sætningskonstruktion. En præposition (forholdsord) må ikke følges af en infinitiv (navneform). Verbet (udsagnsordet) “watch” sættes i ing-form.

3. As a truly devoted sister she loved her brother when she was a child.

Der mangler støtteord. På dansk kan adjektiver godt stå alene, men det kan de normalt ikke på engelsk.

4. The police are doing everything possible to find the murderer.

Kongurensfejl. Der skal være overensstemmelse mellem verbet og subjektets tal, her er “the police” 1. Pers ental, og der skal derfor stå are.

5. Surprisingly, she didn’t know anything about her son skipping class.

“Class” er et utælleligt substantiv, og det kan derfor ikke sættes i flertal.

6. As already mentioned the overall tone of the article is highly ironic and playful.

Ordstillingsfejl. Da der normalt vis er ligefrem ordstilling på engelsk, hvilket også er tilfældet i eksemplet. (Subjektet står før verbet)

7. If you have a family that cannot support you, many things are difficult.

…

B

I nedenstående uddrag af et brev er en række verballed (udsagnsled) understreget.

Angiv i skemaet hvert enkelt understreget verballeds tid, som vist i eksemplet.

Dearest Father,

I am sadly conscious of the many weeks that have passed since I wrote to you last, and hope you will not think your son neglectful, but you will know how infrequently a boat is sent from this most remote of places. As to my news, I know hardly where to begin, so great have been the changes to the settlement – and to my own circumstances that have occurred. I cannot say all has been easy. Often have I thought of you...